There are a number of reasons why people choose to start day trading. Some of these reasons might include the potential to earn extra money on the side from the comfort of their own home, the opportunity to learn a new skill in their own time, or even the dream of achieving financial freedom, and having more control over their financial future. When it comes to Forex specifically though, there are a number of benefits that make this financial instrument a very enticing one to trade.
If you're aiming to take your trading to the next level, the Admiral Markets live account is the perfect place for you to do that! Trade Forex & CFDs on 80+ currencies, choosing from a range of Forex majors, Forex minors, and exotic currency pairs, with access to the latest technical analysis and trading information. Trade the right way, open your live account now by clicking the banner below!
In every part of life, discipline is important, but neglecting discipline in day trading may potentially result in huge losses. Success without discipline is practically impossible. You need to be able to monitor prices for extended periods of time without making any rash trading decisions. This is hard and requires lots of discipline. Sometimes seeing profitable market moves that you have predicted but did not execute is painful, yet it is better to waste an opportunity, than to guarantee a loss.
A spot transaction is a two-day delivery transaction (except in the case of trades between the US dollar, Canadian dollar, Turkish lira, euro and Russian ruble, which settle the next business day), as opposed to the futures contracts, which are usually three months. This trade represents a “direct exchange” between two currencies, has the shortest time frame, involves cash rather than a contract, and interest is not included in the agreed-upon transaction. Spot trading is one of the most common types of forex trading. Often, a forex broker will charge a small fee to the client to roll-over the expiring transaction into a new identical transaction for a continuation of the trade. This roll-over fee is known as the "swap" fee.
The foreign exchange market assists international trade and investments by enabling currency conversion. For example, it permits a business in the United States to import goods from European Union member states, especially Eurozone members, and pay Euros, even though its income is in United States dollars. It also supports direct speculation and evaluation relative to the value of currencies and the carry trade speculation, based on the differential interest rate between two currencies.[2]
According to the Bank for International Settlements, the preliminary global results from the 2019 Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and OTC Derivatives Markets Activity show that trading in foreign exchange markets averaged $6.6 trillion per day in April 2019. This is up from $5.1 trillion in April 2016. Measured by value, foreign exchange swaps were traded more than any other instrument in April 2019, at $3.2 trillion per day, followed by spot trading at $2 trillion.[3]
The second tier is the over-the-counter market. That's where companies and individuals trade. The OTC has become very popular since there are now many companies that offer online trading platforms. New traders, starting with limited capital, need to know more about forex trading. It’s risky because the forex industry is not highly regulated and provides substantial leverage.
The bare bones of foreign currency exchange trading are simple. You make money off exchanging one country’s money for another. However, exploiting those fluctuations or price movements requires both strategy and savvy. Signing up for online tutorials or in-person conferences will help you lay a base layer of knowledge on the forex market, but traders agree that true expertise is built on the job. Jump into a demo or a real (small sum) account and start hitting buttons, pulling from vast online resources whenever you hit a snag or just a big, fat question mark.

The quality of the trading tools a Forex broker offers can make a big difference to your trading experience. In most cases, the available tools will depend on the trading platform (or platforms) being used. For instance, Admiral Markets offers trading through the state of the art MetaTrader 4 & 5 Supreme Edition plugin, which include a range of custom tools and add-ons to improve your trading experience.

Hedge funds – Somewhere around 70 to 90% of all foreign exchange transactions are speculative in nature. This means, the person or institutions that bought or sold the currency has no plan of actually taking delivery of the currency; instead, the transaction was executed with sole intention of speculating on the price movement of that particular currency. Retail speculators (you and I) are small cheese compared to the big hedge funds that control and speculate with billions of dollars of equity each day in the currency markets.

The logistics of forex day trading are almost identical to every other market. However, there is one crucial difference worth highlighting. When you’re day trading in forex you’re buying a currency, while selling another at the same time. Hence that is why the currencies are marketed in pairs. So, the exchange rate pricing you see from your forex trading account represents the purchase price between the two currencies.
There are two main types of retail FX brokers offering the opportunity for speculative currency trading: brokers and dealers or market makers. Brokers serve as an agent of the customer in the broader FX market, by seeking the best price in the market for a retail order and dealing on behalf of the retail customer. They charge a commission or "mark-up" in addition to the price obtained in the market. Dealers or market makers, by contrast, typically act as principals in the transaction versus the retail customer, and quote a price they are willing to deal at.
Prepare for the worst: While this might sound pessimistic, in Forex trading it is better to prepare for the worst than expect the best. There have been many times in history when financial markets and individual trading instruments have experienced sudden spikes or drops in value. By considering the worst possible outcome of a trade, you can take measures to protect yourself, should this happen, such as by setting a stop loss in advance.
The most profitable forex strategy will require an effective money management system. One technique that many suggest is never trading more than 1-2% of your account on a single trade. So, if you have $10,000 in your account, you wouldn’t risk more than $100 to $200 on an individual trade. As a result, a temporary string of bad results won’t blow all your capital.

If you're aiming to take your trading to the next level, the Admiral Markets live account is the perfect place for you to do that! Trade Forex & CFDs on 80+ currencies, choosing from a range of Forex majors, Forex minors, and exotic currency pairs, with access to the latest technical analysis and trading information. Trade the right way, open your live account now by clicking the banner below!

You may also request a bonus to get the best deal for your deposit (Applicable only for clients who are categorised as a "Professional client"). Admiral Markets provides market leading spreads together with low commissions. All of the trading accounts available with Admiral Markets are suitable for day trading, and arguably provide a high-quality experience, for beginner traders and professionals alike.
We will cover how you can start trading (including choosing the best broker and trading software), the fundamentals of risk management, the different ways you can analyse the Forex market, and an overview of the most popular trading strategies. By the end of this guide, you will have the knowledge you need to start testing your trading skills with a free Demo account, before you move onto a live account.

As traders, we can take advantage of the high leverage and volatility of the Forex market by learning and mastering and effective Forex trading strategy, building an effective trading plan around that strategy, and following it with ice-cold discipline. Money management is key here; leverage is a double-edged sword and can make you a lot of money fast or lose you a lot of money fast. The key to money management in Forex trading is to always know the exact dollar amount you have at risk before entering a trade and be TOTALLY OK with losing that amount of money, because any one trade could be a loser. More on money management later in the course.

Retail Forex traders – Finally, we come to retail Forex traders (you and I). The retail Forex trading industry is growing everyday with the advent of Forex trading platforms and their ease of accessibility on the internet. Retail Forex traders access the market indirectly either through a broker or a bank. There are two main types of retail Forex brokers that provide us with the ability to speculate on the currency market: brokers and dealers. Brokers work as an agent for the trader by trying to find the best price in the market and executing on behalf of the customer. For this, they charge a commission on top of the price obtained in the market. Dealers are also called market makers because they ‘make the market’ for the trader and act as the counter-party to their transactions, they quote a price they are willing to deal at and are compensated through the spread, which is the difference between the buy and sell price (more on this later).
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Just like stocks, you can trade currency based on what you think its value is (or where it's headed). But the big difference with forex is that you can trade up or down just as easily. If you think a currency will increase in value, you can buy it. If you think it will decrease, you can sell it. With a market this large, finding a buyer when you're selling and a seller when you're buying is much easier than in in other markets. Maybe you hear on the news that China is devaluing its currency to draw more foreign business into its country. If you think that trend will continue, you could make a forex trade by selling the Chinese currency against another currency, say, the US dollar. The more the Chinese currency devalues against the US dollar, the higher your profits. If the Chinese currency increases in value while you have your sell position open, then your losses increase and you want to get out of the trade.